2017: Be open to whatever comes next!

Don't you just love the unexpected little touches in fabric design.  I found this on the selvage of some fabric I bought intending to make a bag but ended up using for a one hour basket instead.  I snapped the photo as I thought I need to keep this!  The fabric name 'Be open to whatever comes next' has really resonated with me and has stayed in my mind these past few months.

All quilt tops that need quilting!

I wrote about being brave and putting yourself out there as a blogger last year, coming up to the New Bloggers Blog Hop and at that time I was just getting ready to host my first QAL, for the Rainbow Rose.  I also had my first teaching opportunity around that time too and developed a class on Traditional blocks made modern.  That involved being brave and open to the challenge and asking for help.  I had very generous proof readers and am very grateful to them for catching errors and testing my blocks.  Thank you to all who helped make the class a success!

Both of those did take up quite a bit of time but I loved the preparatory work as much as actually doing the class and making with the QAL.  I really enjoyed the writing, illustrations, particularly the design work and that sense of pride in a finished blog post, a completed pattern and bound class booklet, and it was just as nice as in a finished quilt!  Just as well, as there were not that many finished quilts last year!



To be fair, I can't be too hard on myself.  As well as being on committee for our local branch I represented the Mid-West branch at the executive committee of the Irish Patchwork Society (IPS).  There were monthly meetings in Dublin, the AGM weekend and I curated my first gallery of modern quilts in the Knitting & Stitching Show.  I also attended 5 workshops, was in 2 Bee's (Stash and Round Robin), 5 swaps, a blog hop, 3 QAL's, 1 Exhibition and looked after the Modern Quilters Ireland blog group as well as my own and that's with a full time job.  Oh and we got a puppy!  I need to take a breath as that was a lot for one year!

It's not surprising my average blog posts went from 2 a week to just about 1 a week in 2016.  So I am forgiving myself for that.  My online time spent commenting on blogs dropped too though and that has me feeling down but I think it was inevitable really with less time to spend online overall.  

My year on IG from Makelight - that neon green?  Definitely Glow in the Dark Vader! and the muted browns?  Definitely the dogs!

So how is 2017 shaping up?  Well as of last Saturday, I was elected chair of the IPS (eeks!  Being brave and being open to the opportunity!), have booked 2 teaching sessions in the Spring in Cork and Dublin, have signed up to 2 workshops in February (yes I am a glutton for punishment),  1 swap also due in February and have a quilt design in the works for the Modern Ireland Quilters Group for the summer and our second exhibition in Dublin called Fun!   Oh and I'm giving a talk at our branch this Friday and still trying to toilet train Maggie, the puppy (yes still!)

Projects half started as opposed to PHD - Projects half done!

So, I'll be blogging when I can on my sewing progress but it probably won't be every week this quarter!  And my quarter a long finish goals - well there are lots to choose from.  All of these I have carried over from 2016.  No wonder I wasn't getting that job well done, finished feeling at the end of last year.  There's 25 projects from fabric to idea, to quilt top, to partially quilted that I haven't given up on yet.  I really wish I could be a one quilt at a time person but I guess that's never going to happen! Still I think this many is a bit nuts!  How about you?  One at a time or all in one go?

So for this quarter, it being quite mental I am going to look at getting 2 quilts longarmed and keep up with swaps and bees, spend more time commenting on blogs and IG and lastly choose the Modern Irish Bee Houses quilt as a me project and try and get that done for our Fun exhibition in May.  Anything else that gets done is a bonus!  That's the plan anyway...

Linking up with

A Finish - “Owls of a Feather…"

You might remember some time ago I wrote about repurposing some gingham squares I had in my stash box for nearly 2 years!  When you run out of steam on a project and the original idea really isn’t worth it it’s ok in my book to make it into something else!



I finally finished my donation quilt!  The pattern is from creative Patchwork magazine by Sally Ablett and is designed for a pack of 5” charm squares.  Sally cleverly uses blank spaces to spread the squares out a bit with two borders and a skinny strip to frame the quilt.  If you have a spare lonely charm pack lying around you might try this one out! 

I had a stack of squares I had cut up for a double bed quilt and I was bored with just sashing them and joining them together, so they become this lovely quilt which I’m calling Owls of a Feather because of the cute fabric on the back.  (Honestly I couldn’t think of a name for this one and it was the best I could come up with!)



The main body of the quilt was quilted with gentle curves (Clamshell pattern).  This was my first time trying this pattern and it would have gone better if I had given myself some marked lines to stay within.  I eyeballed it across the quilt and they are not the most even of shapes but it does give a really nice texture to the quilt.  Next one will be better!

I quilted the two outside borders in figure of 8 and had a bit of difficulty turning the corners.  Little stars in the skinny border finished it off and though the quilting isn’t perfect yet, (stops and starts I need to practice), I really like how it turned out and I was definitely getting better by the time I got to the end of the quilt!
 


Of course all of this was done before I attended a Free Motion Quilting Class and saw Rachel @ Stitched in Color’s tutorial on figure of 8 quilting!  I love this quilting pattern and Rachel explains it brilliantly.  I quilted mine right to left and Rachel does hers from top to bottom.  If you want to try it yourself Rachel’s tutorial is here on her blog.

As this will be used by kids and may get washed a lot I sewed the binding down by hand and also machine stitched along the inside just in case!

You do get a line of stitching on the back but it's almost invisible on the front.  Probably unnecessary but made me feel better.  



For now this has been posted off and I still have another 70 or so gingham squares left in the box!  The fabric used was Moda Bella White, Kona Azure, Kona Peacock for the binding and I think the cream was Ikea!  Measures approx 65” x 65”.

As this was a FAL goal I'm linking up to The Littlest Thistle, the Library Project, and the Friday Finishes.  
Crazy Mom Quilts and

Finish-A-Long Quarter 3 goals

This is what my sewing (ahem kitchen table) looks like at the moment.  I have 8 separate projects on the go at the same time in various stages of completion (in addition to UFO's from last quarter!) so choosing the projects I hope to complete by September has been a bit of a problem for me.

A lot of the projects I'm doing are BOM that won't be finished by September but there some above I really could do with getting finished so after much pondering here's my list:

Carryovers

• Bounce
  
  Nearly there with this one, 80% quilted and binding material purchased.

•  A Dog's Life,  2 blocks out of 4 done.

• Boo to you (UFO from last Halloween).  A finish in spetember would be perfect for this! Top done just have to quilt it with orange and purple thread to fill in those cream squares.

New projects started

•  Swoon 2013, pattern bought, fabric bought, SAL on flickr joined now to start cutting!

• 4 Houses Cushion, designed,maths all worked out, test block completed, ready to make the real thing now.
  

I think that's plenty to keep me going for a while!

Finish-A-Long Quarter 2 update

Linking up to the Finish-A-Long at SheCanQuilt it's time to review the sewing goals I set myself last April.

Nothing like a deadline to push those unfinished objects to the finish line! Ahmm yup that's what I thought 3 months ago. Except this last quarter, I started more new things than I finished. There was just so many lovely projects going on that I joined in on and a few weekends to Galway and a week in Chicago visiting family ( though I did visit the Quiltology store and bought fabric for a Swoon quilt so not all of it was non-quilting time! )

So here's the round up:

1. Bounce : in April here's where I was

 In June Bordered and Basted - not yet quilted

 Finish = 0

     2. A Dog's life - applique project for myself - no progress, nope, nothing at all

Finish = 0

    3. Karavan Cushions - 2 finished, 1 to go!

Finish = 2/3
  
  4.  Scrappy Trip - 2 blocks completed and given away, no finished quilt

Finish = 0

   5. Strip & Flip quilt
In April this was the pieced top

In July Basted and quilted! Yay

Finish = 1


So all in all 1 2/3 out of 5.  Yup I can definitley improve on that score in the next qtr.  Hope you guys managed a little better!

FAL Goals

So beginning a new quarter, just the time to set some sewing goals.  I'm linking up to FAL at She Can Quilt.  Nothing like a deadline to push those unfinished objects to the finish line! 

My UFO's that I really want to finish are:

1.  Bounce - present for Gordon's Aunt: at the stage where I'm adding borders.

2.  A Dog's Life - Applique quilt project (present for me from myself!)

3.  Karavan Cushions - just love these elephants!

4.  Mini Scrappy trip around the world lap quilt - strips ready to sew

 
5.  Strip & Flip baby quilt present for friends expecting in the summer.  There seems to be a baby boom at the moment!